Torches together
by plainkidsister
Summary: McCoy/Chapel. Five times Doctor & Nurse owned sickbay and the one time they fell short.


[prompt was DoctorNurse!BAMF so I was happy to oblige. reads like a stream of consciousness.]

**warnings: **cursing, minor gore

**disclaimer: **characters are not mine but plot is!

* * *

1. **The time when Kirk arrived**

Her uniform wasn't even a week old but here comes Leonard McCoy, playing human crutch to sickly-looking thing, cringing and shivering in his cadet reds. She stiffens and prepares to play the role she was born to with her prepared voice and perfect tone and -

And the kid _barfs_ on her but she stays quiet, wipes her mouth and shoots McCoy the most desperate look she can manage. He only shrugs and turns to his patient, muttering under his breath and sending the kid off into a deep sedated sleep. She's wiping off her tunic with a steady hand, anger dissolving with every stroke and McCoy approaches her back to place a hand on it and apologize. His eyes linger at her soiled chest a little too long and she narrows her eyes at him, shoving the dirty rag in his hand and going to the bed where the cadet is mumbling softly in his sleep. He looks terrible, eyes too big for his sockets and his muscles rigid at the shoulder; he twitches violently for a moment and she sighs. She moves to touch his forehead but McCoy barks at her to come over and _look at this damn mess_, so she decides to come back and check on the handsome boy later. The other doctors and nurses are huddled around video monitors, listening to a transmission from the bridge but she and McCoy are scrutinizing the mess of supplies lying around. He nudges her toward it and she sighs, bending over a large box to dig around without any regard to her uniform. She catches a whiff of the drying vomit and almost passes out but also becomes aware of the fact that her skirt is just a little too revealing and that McCoy is probably making those noises because of his view rather than his sincere concern for the appearance of sickbay. She stands up and shoves an inventory list into McCoy's chest, ignoring the smile he gives her and goes over the cadet's bed to check on him. She turns to let McCoy slip past her, a deliberate hand brushing the small of her back, and the cadet bolts upright out of his sedation. She hears McCoy mutter a "Good God, man!" and she turns, seeing the inflammation, swallowing her shock and handing the doctor his Cortisone hypospray. The cadet bolts and she follows dutifully after Dr. McCoy because that's what she's trained to do and she can't stop herself.

2. **The time when Deck Six is destroyed**

The ship jolts hard and he hears Chapel yelling forcefully at a nurse who is cowering low near the medicarts, her finger waving wildly around. They've been hit and McCoy is looking around for the CMO for direction but can only see people being jostled around, hyposprays rolling around on the floor and sparks coming from a breached wall. There are some screams and he goes to each of occupied patient beds, securing each one until he sees Chapel hurrying past the offices to lock the supply cabinets, which she does with a hard wrench to the emergency manual turn-lock. The woman is strong and he watches her biceps move beneath the skin tight tunic sleeves as she maneuvers her way between each person who is now stumbling around sickbay, trying to find something to hold on to. McCoy moves to meet her and get some knowledge about the condition of their sickbay when it lurches harshly and he hits the side of a bench hard, pain blossoming hot in his hip and he watches Chapel fall on her rear. She looks angry, standing up gingerly when the ship steadies and there is a loud crash from the sickbay doors opening harshly, a stream of injured crew members falling in. McCoy orders triage and Chapel is like a robot, moving people around and into beds and he sees one of the biochemists holding an engineer who is burnt on half of her body.

"Where's Puri?" McCoy directs a few nurses to take the hurt girl and the biochemist is pale, his eyes cocaine-white and blue with fear.

"Died on Deck Six."

McCoy curses loudly but it doesn't faze anyone until the bridge chimes in on the other side of sickbay. He says "Fuck!" a little too loudly next to the patient beds and dodges each flying spark to answer the call. The hobgoblin asks for Puri and McCoy replies, "Puri died on Deck Six."

The Vulcan only tells him he's in charge now and he _knew_ that but turns back to the room full of casualties to find Chapel. She's wrapping a wound tightly, using her mouth to rip bandages and to tape them to staunch bleeding. McCoy picks up needles and thread to stitch flesh back together until they can get the dermal regenerator going and heads for the bed with blood leading to it. Chapel is there, bodily fluids in her hair and on her chin, sedating the bloody cadet who has a bone jutting from his shin and blackened skin from the explosion. McCoy neatly sets the bone, his fingers stained red, and Chapel moves onto the girl with massive burns to soothe her and manually apply dermal healing cream to the skin, which is sloughing off in slick pink chunks.

McCoy sighs and wipes his forehead with a swipe of his wrist and heads in the direction of the nearest scream.

3. **The time before the jump**

She steps into the ready room and sees the kid, Jim Kirk as she now knows, seated quietly in his jumping gear and feet loudly thumping his seat. She steadies the hypospray against his neck and he observes her, his breath even and his skin cool. He's a good patient, smiling when she finishes and asking politely if that's all she has for him. She nods and he hops down, adjusting his suit and watches her pack up and type something into the PADD. The room is still but he swallows as she turns around. She can tell he's nervous, a little unsure and she puts a soft hand on his chest. "You'll be fine."

"You seem so sure of yourself."

She laughs despite the seriousness of the exchange and just replies, "We're on a spaceship. I'm not so sure of anything right now."

He exits and she watches him follow Pike obediently, a last smirk before he dives toward Vulcan and the drill.

4. **The time when the Vulcans are on board**

He's never been so confused as when he sees the stoic Vulcans seated on the clean biobeds, hands still and quiet even after the cries of despair that had escaped the weakest nurses as they watched Vulcan collapse. He runs a tricorder over a tall one, the one who looks like the green-blooded son of a bitch, and settles with the fact that the Vulcan is unharmed but won't speak. McCoy moves to the next one and only observes a small green cut on the woman's face, which he cleans and patches up without her eyes leaving his face. The rest of the Vulcans are just sitting there, while he moves around to check the patients who are still critical from the first attack.

Chapel is stroking the hair of a little Vulcan girl who is sitting by herself and McCoy watches the exchange. She gives the girl a mild sedative, motioning for the child to lean back onto the bed and tucking a pillow behind her head. She lets the girl drift off while smiling and he finds himself becoming jealous of the nurse. Chapel is hard and soft at the same time, her voice cutting and soothing to fit the need of the patient or the "idiot CMO" as she had barked at him only hours earlier. She moves away from the bed and he intercepts her as she apologizes and he only nods, watching her go over to a group of nurses and break them up.

She's going to make a damn good doctor someday and he goes to write her a quick message before she logs out.

5. **The time when Kirk (+1) came back**

She can see McCoy arguing with the man about his hand and she decides to be nosy and get closer. She can see the blackened tips of the engineer's fingers and McCoy is raising his voice and using words like "amputate" and "gangrene" and "Hemingway, goddamnit!". She giggles at the last reference and the man only argues back with Leonard, which pisses off the doctor even more. Nevertheless, she is surprised to see a compromise reached when McCoy moves to wrap the man's hands with a clean cloth and ask to see him in a few hours to check on his condition. The man only claps the doc on the back, tells him what a "Fuckin' great doctor" he is and whistles out of sickbay to get his uniform. McCoy retreats to his office and she leans in his doorway to watch him update files and pace around, contacting the Chief Engineer to have a quick discussion about their new addition.

She returns to her post and sees the message on her PADD, sent just a few hours earlier from a Dr. Leonard McCoy. She saves it, makes up her mind to contact Starfleet once they find stability in the universe, and writes him back. She likes that he now follows each message with a signature that reads "Leonard H. McCoy, USS Enterprise CMO" because that's how she addresses her letters from now on.

**And the one time when Pike returns:**

The laser scalpel is hot to the touch and McCoy smiles because he knew she would have it ready to go because that's how he likes it. Pike is face-down, unconscious and Chapel watches the doctor make a small slice along his spine, green goo bubbling up from the wound. His voice is steady as she hands him the pliers and he slips ever so slightly and she gasps. McCoy says nothing and he can feel her starting to be hysterical, nothing like the Chapel he's used to and it causes him to stop. The bug is wriggling under Pike's thin skin and he doesn't look at it but just stares at her.

She's crying a little and she feels dumb but McCoy's not moving, his hand hovering over the incision. If they've gone through all of this for _nothing, _she's not going to have it.

"Chapel!" It's not so much of a bark as a concerned shout and she takes a shaky, halting breath. His eyes melt into her and she nods, watching him go back to the wound and extract the slug, a slimy trail following the vile thing. He dumps it into a container and he holds out his hand for the dermal regenerator. Another nurse hands it over and he looks up to see that Chapel has gone and been replaced by a junior nurse who stares at him coldly. They wheel Pike out and McCoy can't get his stuff off fast enough to find her. He's congratulated and hears Kirk over the intercom but ignores him while he looks for her blonde head above everyone else.

She's standing next to the window in the break room, staring into the inky black nothingness, tears chilling on her cheeks. She's relieved it's over and that Kirk is her captain and that Pike is fine -

"Christine." McCoy turns out the light and she looks over at him, wiping her eyes slightly. He reads her thoughts and kisses her forehead, swiping his thumbs over the apples of her cheeks and brushes his lips to hers. It's against regulation but they can be angry later, when it matters, but in this moment they've arrived at the same point. He kisses her mouth firmly and she sighs.


End file.
